Saturday, January 30, 2010

Jools Watsham's Developer Diary: New Proposals & New Game

Saturday, Jan 30, 2010: It has been a busy week. We wrapped up a playable demo of a DSiWare game that we've been working on for a couple of months now - let's call that Jack. I sent the demo out to a few publishers for their review. With that project now parked - awaiting a greenlight - we have started the development of a new original project, which is one of the DS retail titles I mentioned last week - let's call that Spirit. It is a very different genre for us, which is very exciting. In addition to some publishers showing interest in its original form, one of the publishers we're in talks with has also shown some interest in Spirit being applied to one of their licenses, so I am also in the middle of creating a tailored proposal for that. Why would I want to apply a license to it? My, that's a good question! Well, there are a number of reasons: License games typically have larger development budgets. They also receive advertising (that would be a nice change!). And they also typically sell more copies than original titles (due to at least one of the previous two factors). Now, I know there's a lot of stigma surrounding licensed titles, but I always think back to titles like Capcom's Aladdin and Mickey Mouse on the SNES and remember that a developer can create a license title and retain quality and respect if they're focused on making a great game - which we are.

Earlier in the week I created a new proposal for a different licensed title - code-named Stars. All of this secret code-talk is going to get confusing, isn't it? :) It is another publisher we are in talks with regarding Spirit. I should receive feedback from them next week on both Spirit and Stars. Hm, Spirit and Stars... sounds like a good name for a game!

We were supposed to receive a creative brief on the HUGE licensed title from the HUGE publisher this week, but it looks like it is slightly delayed. This is fairly typical, but I am really looking forward to checking it out and creating a proposal from it. Let's hope it arrives early next week. We'll codename that, Red.

Another title from proposals-of-the-past has popped its head up again (codenamed Shapes) - showing interest from a publisher - so that'll be interesting to see if that goes anywhere.

Oh, I also received confirmation of my E3 pass for this year's show. Man, last year's was so awesome. So, I am really looking forward to attending E3 again now that it has returned to its former glory.

You guys have my full support!I like Dementium: the Ward and Moon and will buy all youre future games (if they are on a Nintendo platform :) and they are released within Europe)Thnx for some awesome game-experiences!